The problem with moving into a new section of a novel set in a different place with specific technology means that you have to understand how that technology works before you can write it. Which means, in turn, that valuable writing time becomes research time.

I am about to know more on the subject of overshot water wheels, sluices, and dams than I ever thought I’d need to know.

ETA: See?

The sluice flow rate formula is:

Q = ACsqrt{2gh}

where:

* Q is the flow
* A is the area of the sluice
* g is the acceleration due to gravity on the Earth’s surface (approx. 9.81 m/s²)
* h is the head across sluice
* C is the discharge coefficient (typically 0.61 for small depth ratios)